After His Daughter Called, Man Rushed Into Burning Bar
People light candles near the sealed-off Le Constellation bar in Crans-Montana, Swiss Alps, Switzerland, on Friday. (AP Photo/ Antonio Calanni)
A man living just steps from a Swiss ski resort bar said he helped pull about 10 young people to safety after a New Year’s fire turned the venue’s basement into what he described as “a trap.”
Speaking from his hospital bed, 55-year-old financial analyst Paolo Campolo told the Italian newspaper Il Messaggero that he rushed to the Le Constellation bar in Crans-Montana after receiving a frantic call from his 17-year-old daughter. She told him her boyfriend and several friends were trapped inside as a fire spread through the crowded space.
Campolo said he forced open an emergency exit, encountered “bodies all around,” and dragged roughly 10 people outside despite thick smoke and intense heat, according to the Telegraph. “They were begging for help in several languages,” he said. “They were very young.”
His daughter escaped unharmed, but her boyfriend remains hospitalized with severe burns. Authorities say at least 40 people were killed in the blaze. Families of the victims are now mourning, keeping vigil at hospitals, or desperately waiting for news.
“My son is injured, but he is alive, and that is the most important thing,” said Umberto Marcucci. His 16-year-old son, Manfredi, suffered burns to about 30% of his body while trying to escape the flames.
One woman told Deutsche Welle that she spent 30 hours searching for her 16-year-old son. “The wait is unbearable,” she said in an interview with French broadcaster BFMTV. “If he’s in the hospital, I don’t know which one. If he’s in the morgue, I don’t know which morgue. If my son is alive, he’s alone in the hospital, and I can’t be by his side.”
Campolo said that as he pulled victims from the fire with his bare hands, he could think of only one thing. “All I could think was that they could have been my children,” he said.
Investigators believe the fire may have started when sparklers on champagne bottles ignited flammable materials, triggering a rapid “flashover” that quickly engulfed the basement.
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